#ShoppingWhileBlack: Woman Says She Was Kicked Out Of Victoria’s Secret Because Of Her Race

In a statement, the popular lingerie company confirmed that the store manager responsible for the racial profiling has been fired.

A Mississippi Black woman claims that a Victoria’s Secret manager tossed her out of one their stores because of her race.

According to AL.com, on Wednesday, nurse Kimberly Houzah posted an 11-minute video on Facebook saying that she was a regular at the Oxford, Alabama, store and that she and another patron were kicked out when a different African-American woman—a complete stranger— was caught stealing. The video has since gone viral with over 950K views.

“Because another Black female gets caught stealing, me and the other Black female here, we have to be affiliated. So we’re put out. I never thought in a million years this would happen to me,” Houzah says in the video.

Houzah also claims that they never looked inside her bag or even fully explained why she forced to leave.

“I don’t feel like everybody’s racist,” she says bursting into tears. “I’m not understanding what’s the problem. It’s completely absurd. I got put out of Victoria’s Secret just for being black…I can buy anything in there I want. Are you kidding me?…I’m so upset.“

According to WIAT News, Houzah returned to the store on Thursday, bringing a group of protesters with her to confront the manager, who sadly wasn’t working that day. However, a different manager apologized to Houzah for how she was treated the day before.

Houzah told the news station that she hoped her protest showed to others that racism can happen everywhere.

“It was just to let people know, you know, this does happen here,” “And I mean, we’re a very small town and you wouldn’t think these kinds of things would happen here.”

After conducting an internal investigation, Victoria’s Secret apologized in a statement on Facebook, stressing that the employee responsible for the racial profiling has since been fired.

“What happened at our store should not have happened and does not represent who we are or what we stand for,” the statement reads. “Victoria’s Secret is adamant that all customers regardless of race be treated with dignity and respect at all times.”

This isn’t the first popular lingerie company’s run-in with accusations of racism in 2016.

Earlier this year, HelloBeautiful reported that two African-American women in Beverly Hills were suing Victoria’s Secret for $4 million for racial discrimination. The lawsuit states that Shaunda McDaniel and Tammi Robinson were kicked out of the Beverly Center store by management after a confrontation with an aggressive white customer. Soon after, management got involved with one manager assumed the two Black women were at fault. According to the lawsuit, the ladies were kicked out of the store and the manager apologized to the customer who was allegedly aggressive toward McDaniel and Robinson.